“Read, Hear/Heed” (Rev. 1:3): Obeying an Exegetical Clue to Understand the Overall Practical Messages of the Apocalypse

This paper is about: how I came to the understanding of, to use Talbert’s words, “the pastoral application” of the Book of Revelation, and what that message—or, more accurately, messages—are. First, the meaning of Revelation 1:3 will be explored as an up-front clue to the book’s practical intent. Second, I will explain where my renewed brainstorming on the “heeding” front initially took me in regard to a “big picture” sense of Revelation. Third, I will demonstrate how a grand chiastic structuring of the Apocalypse actually has major practical implications. Fourth, I will lay out a “spread chiasm” of the seven beatitudes in Revelation, which provides complementary insights in understanding and obeying the Book’s practical message. Finally, I will briefly summarize my findings and offer a plea for interpreters to allow the Apocalypse to speak on its own practical terms

The Continuation of Israel’s Land Promise in the New Testament: A Fresh Approach

This article responds to recent evangelical interpreters who have argued that the land promise given to Israel in the Old Testament is no longer in effect based on the scarcity of references to the promise in the New Testament. The paper asserts that the Land Promise is not only present in the New Testament, but even provides a sort of overall theological framework for the New Testament

DNA sequence evidence for speciation, paraphyly and a Mesozoic dispersal of cancellothyridid articulate brachiopods

Because the classification of extant and fossil articulate brachiopods is based largely upon shell characters observable in fossils, it identifies morphotaxa whose biological status can, in practice, best be inferred from estimates of genetic divergence. Allozyme polymorphism and restriction fragment length polymorphism of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA RFLP) have been used to show that nuclear and mitochondrial genetic divergence between samples of the cancellothyridid brachiopods Terebratulina septentrionalis from Canada and T. retusa from Europe is compatible with biological speciation, but the genetic distances obtained were biased by methodological limitations. Here, we report estimates of divergence in 12S rDNA mitochondrial sequences within and between samples of these brachiopods. The sequence-based genetic distance between these samples (5.98-0.07% SE) is at least 10 times greater than within them and, since they also differ in a complex life-history trait, their species status is considered to be securely established. Divergence levels between 12S rDNA genes of three other cancellothyridids, T. unguicula from Alaska, T. crossei from near Japan, and Cancellothyris hedleyi from near Australia are higher than between the two North Atlantic species, and the mean nucleotide distance between all these cancellothyrids is similar to the mean distance between species of Littorina (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Sequences of both 12S and 16S genes from cancellothyridids and other short-looped brachiopod species show neither saturation nor lineage-specific rate differences and, when analysed with different outgroups, either separately or together, yield one unexpected, but well-supported, tree with Alaskan T. unguicula basal and C. hedleyi nested within Terebratulina, i.e. these genera are paraphyletic. A geologically dated divergence between Antarctic and New Zealand species of the short-looped brachiopod Liothyrella is used to calibrate the rate of 12S divergence at ca. 0.1% per million years (MY), and this rate is used to infer that T. septentrionalis and T. retusa have been diverging for ca. 60 MY and that they and T. unguicula have been diverging from their last common ancestor for ca. 100 MY. This indicates a Mesozoic origin for the present-day distribution of cancellothyridids and the basal position of T. unguicula suggests a possible North Pacific centre of origin, with separate Atlantic and Pacific radiations. The inclusion of Cancellothyris within Terebratulina also shows that adult shell characters such as umbo, foramen and symphytium shape, whilst probably indispensible for the practical classification of fossils, are not reliable guides to genealogy

The brachiopod fold: a neglected body plan hypothesis

Attention is drawn to Nielsen's radical body plan concept, here named the 'brachiopod fold hypothesis', under which brachiopods and phoronids are recognized to be transversely folded across the ontogenetic anterior–posterior axis so that, to make useful comparisons with other phyla, these organisms must be conceptually unfolded. Under the hypothesis brachiopod brachial and pedicle shell valves are respectively 'anterior' and 'posterior' rather than 'dorsal' and 'ventral' as traditionally described. The hypothesis makes sense of the symmetry axes of the brachiopod shell, is consistent with various indications from fossil and Recent brachiopods, and gives rise to predicted patterns of axis–determining gene expression that differ from those obtaining under the traditional view of the body plan, whilst the variety of folding movements in different lineages implies that superficially dissimilar morphogenetic folds may be fundamentally homologous. Convergent folding patterns are noted in some other organisms. A previous conjecture that inarticulate linguloid brachiopods were derived from halkieriid–like ancestors is elaborated with proposals that recognize possible functional continuities of coelomic and marginal sclerite functions, and it is noted that an ancestrally facultative fold could have become incorporated by genetic assimilation into the brachiopod developmental program. An experimental approach is outlined to test the possibility that some members of the 'small shelly fauna' may have been members of the halkieriid–like brachiopod stem lineage and it is also suggested that buoyancy modification may have been an important function of mineralization amongst Lower Cambrian floaters and swimmers, since negative buoyancy would facilitate access to the benthic niche